Letter to go on sale revealing how Bloomsbury group duped an admiral – but feared fake beards would give them away
Virginia Woolf, left, and the Bloomsbury group hoaxers. Photograph: Antonio Zazueta Olmos for the Observer
One of the most famous practical jokes in British military history has returned to haunt the Royal Navy – more than a century later.
A previously unknown letter has surfaced, detailing the "shriekingly funny" Dreadnought hoax of 7 February 1910, when members of the Bloomsbury group of writers and artists donned beards and costumes to disguise themselves as Abyssinian princes and gained access to the pride of the British naval fleet.
The letter was written by Horace de Vere Cole, who described how he and five friends, including the novelist Virginia Woolf and painter Duncan Grant, duped an admiral and the crew of the battleship HMS Dreadnought, flagship of the home fleet.
Four of them pretended to be Abyssinians and two claimed to be their Foreign Office guides. Even Woolf's cousin, one of the naval officers on board the ship, failed to recognise the author in her fake beard.
Once on board, the visitors were given the full red-carpet treatment: a band played, the crew saluted them and African flags were hoisted to the masthead. When invited to dine with the officers they declined, in their version of Swahili – seemingly translated by Woolf's brother, Adrian Stephen – because the food and drink had not been prepared correctly. The group actually feared that their fake beards would fall off.
Reports of the hoax – three double-sided sheets long – made the newspapers a few days later and provoked questions in parliament that led to a tightening of regulations for ceremonial parties.
More at The Observer.
A previously unknown letter has surfaced, detailing the "shriekingly funny" Dreadnought hoax of 7 February 1910, when members of the Bloomsbury group of writers and artists donned beards and costumes to disguise themselves as Abyssinian princes and gained access to the pride of the British naval fleet.
The letter was written by Horace de Vere Cole, who described how he and five friends, including the novelist Virginia Woolf and painter Duncan Grant, duped an admiral and the crew of the battleship HMS Dreadnought, flagship of the home fleet.
Four of them pretended to be Abyssinians and two claimed to be their Foreign Office guides. Even Woolf's cousin, one of the naval officers on board the ship, failed to recognise the author in her fake beard.
Once on board, the visitors were given the full red-carpet treatment: a band played, the crew saluted them and African flags were hoisted to the masthead. When invited to dine with the officers they declined, in their version of Swahili – seemingly translated by Woolf's brother, Adrian Stephen – because the food and drink had not been prepared correctly. The group actually feared that their fake beards would fall off.
Reports of the hoax – three double-sided sheets long – made the newspapers a few days later and provoked questions in parliament that led to a tightening of regulations for ceremonial parties.
More at The Observer.
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